Communities Across Florida are Coming Together to Fight for Clean Water ... Jacksonville, Palatka and Gainesville are among the cities concerned about water quality. Environmental groups say the state waterways are either choked by pollution and toxic algae or drying up because of over-consumption of water, or both. Channel 4's Ashley Mitchem says there is an online petition going around the state to find solutions to Florida's water worries. 3 1:21-1:2600-0525-3356-1:01 PKG: nat pop of cheeringConcern ed citizens from more than 100 different organizations as well as elected officials participated in the Floridians' Clean Water Declaration Campaign across the state..St. Johns River Keeper Lisa Rinaman led Jacksonville's "commit to Clean Water" event in Riverside with the St. Johns River as the back drop.Rinaman plans to go to Tallahassee on February 18th to push for cleaner water efforts to be made..Lisa Rinaman, St.Johns River Keeper 00:23 If we are proactive and take care of it our quality of life, our economy will thrive if not we're going to have to pay tax payer dollars to fix these resourcesThere were 16 other cities across the state who held the same event encouraging people to sign the Floridians' Clean Water Declaration.There are several points in the declaration-- one for example is "the people of Florida have an inalienable right to have abundant water for drinking, fishing and recreation." One local kayaker at the event says he hope people make changes with how they use water and treat our river.Roger Linville, Kayaker 01:59 There were too many times this past year when the algae blooms in the river kept us out of the riverLinville also says there were other times when the St. Johns River was unsafe to swim in this year and that fishermen were worried they couldn't eat the fish they caught due to the river's cleanliness.02:28 It's very frustrating and upsetting I think it's been mentioned several times the St. Johns River is the crown jewel of Northeast FloridaCLOSE: 05:32 If you want to sign the petition going around the state of Florida for clean water go to news4jax.com.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -

Communities across Florida are coming together to fight for clean water. Jacksonville, Palatka and Gainesville are among the cities concerned about water quality.

Environmental groups say the state waterways are either choked by pollution and toxic algae or drying up because of overconsumption of water, or both.

Concerned citizens from more than 100 different organizations as well as elected officials participated in the Floridians' Clean Water Declaration Campaign across the state.

St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman led Jacksonville's "Commit to Clean Water" event in Riverside with the St. Johns River as the backdrop.

Rinaman plans to go to Tallahassee on Feb. 18 to push for cleaner water efforts to be made.

"If we are proactive and take care of it, our quality of life, our economy will thrive," Rinaman said. "If not, we're going to have to pay taxpayer dollars to fix these resources."

There were 16 other cities across the state that held the same event Wednesday encouraging people to sign the Floridians' Clean Water Declaration.

There are several points in the declaration. One, for example, is "the people of Florida have an inalienable right to have abundant water for drinking, fishing and recreation."

One local kayaker at the event, Roger Linville, said he hopes people make changes with how they use water and treat the St. Johns River.

"There were too many times this past year when the algae blooms in the river kept us out of the river," Linville said.

He said there were other times when the St. Johns River was unsafe to swim in this year and that fishermen were worried they couldn't eat the fish they caught due to the river's cleanliness.

"It's very frustrating and upsetting," he said. "I think it's been mentioned several times, the St. Johns River is the crown jewel of northeast Florida."

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